Sermon nuggets Thurs Oct 30
Theme- Prayer for believers
Verses- John 17:25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
Understanding
To paraphrase Jesus prayer, “O, that the world would know the Father like I know the Father.” The believers know that you sent me, but I pray that they might have the knowledge of who you are through my teaching. I need to continue to make you known to them, Lord, so that they love you and know the love you have for me, may be in them and that I myself may be in them. I pray that they would experience your love and your knowledge, and realization that even after I m gone I am with them?
Sometimes when I’m asked to do a funeral for someone I do not know very well, I ask their loved ones to tell me a little more about him. Some comments I get resemble these statements, “O, I wish you could have known him. He was such a lovely person. Many don’t know him very well, O I wish you could have known him like I Knew him. Let me tell you about him.”
Jesus does one better. It move us from not just knowing about God, but that we can know Him personally. We will know Him when we are reunited together. But through increased knowledge and understanding of Him now, we will realize His love and receive His love in us and the power of Jesus is also made manifested in us.
What is the glory which Christ has given by the Father and now given to us? Love. O that we could understand the power of His love; The love that sent Jesus to the cross and why He is willing to go. The love that will keep the believers protected. The love that causes Jesus to pray for us as believers and for our unity and for our reunion and for our understanding of knowing God better Christian unity is that unity which transcends all difference and joins men together in love. Too often today men love their organizations and creeds, and rituals more than each other. Only the love implanted in the hearts of man by God can tear down the barriers which men have erected between each other and church.
Jesus wants us to understand more about the glory and wonder of His Father. When Philip asked that Jesus shows them the Father, He responds by saying in John 14:9-13 “Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”
As we reflect the image of Christ in our lives so we also reflect the image of the Father. The world needs to know Him and the only way they can is through us and how He shows His glory and love through His children until Christ returns.
Pastor Dale
